The Ancient Cross: A Little Devotional Study Concerning the Glad Tidings of the Work of the Eternal Son in Behalf of Pre-Converted Elect Muslims

CONTENTS

1.      The Spirit of God Gives Me Faith

2.      True Peace:  Jesus Christ Lived For Me

3.      True Peace:  Jesus Christ Was Forsaken For Me

4.      True Peace:  Jesus Christ Shed His Blood For Me

5.      True Peace:  Jesus Christ Gives Me His Complete Righteousness

6.      True Peace:  Jesus Christ Forgives and Cleanses Me

Chapter 1:  The Spirit of God Gives Me Faith

Paul in 1 Timothy 6:12 proclaims:

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good confession before many witness.”  

The Christian doctrine of the effectual calling of God is essential for our theological understanding and it is fundamental in application to our Christian lives.  The call of God is most effective.  God called the universe into existence.  When God accomplish this, the universe complied.  God’s preferred outcome came to fruition.  In a similar case, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ called Lazarus into life from the grave (John 11:14).  Instantly Lazarus had life within Him when Jesus called him forth, “Lazarus, come forth.”  (John 11:43).

            The believer of God receives an effectual call from God in the Christian life.  The call of God within the believer brings a preferred result.  The effectual calling of God is in relation to the utter powerfulness of Yahweh.  This relation is with regeneration of the Holy Spirit of the depraved sinner.  The regeneration of the depraved sinner is from spiritual darkness into spiritual rebirth.  This action of God is appropriately named irresistible grace.  This theological terminology comes from the letter I within the Christian essential of the Calvinistic acronym of Tulip. 

            The effectual call of God refers the sovereign authority of God Himself toward His people which brings forth His intended, appointed and ordained result.  The apostle Paul teaches the following: Those God predestinates He calls.  Those He calls, He justifies.  Those He calls; this is in reference to the effectual calling of God from God Himself. 

            There is an inward call of God. This is known as His effectual calling toward His people.  The effectual calling of God’s chosen people is a classified work of God.  The effectual calling of God is the regeneration of the Holy Ghost toward God’s elect people. It is also know as God’s quickening work of the action of the Holy Ghost. 

The regeneration of the Holy Ghost is an instantaneous uncanny work of the Spirit of God.  The regeneration of God the Holy Ghost acts as an internal transformation of the nature, proclivity and aspiration of the human spirit.  Prior to the effectual call of the Triune Lord, now the individual is capable of approaching to Him.  All the pre-converted elect are effectually called.  All the effectual called individuals respond in true faith.   Therefore, faith is a beloved present of God because the effectual call of the Holy Ghost has been given to the individual. 

The outward call is the gospel proclamation of God.  The outward call is heard by the non-elect and the elect.  The outward call may be refused.  The outward call will only be accomplished by the individual if the Holy Spirit makes the initial effective inward call a reality.  When the inward call is made accompanied with the outward call, the person has faith.  The effectual call of God from God Himself is irresistible.  God sovereignly brings forth a preferred outcome.  Yet, however, fallen creatures do resist God’s sovereign grace.  Nevertheless, God’s grace is irresistible in the meaning that God’s unmerited grace succeeds greater than fallen depravity. 

God’s creative powerfulness is His effective call.  His effective call brings forth spiritual life from spiritual death.  To the Ephesians Paul declares:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”  (Ephesians 2:1-3).

            The pre-converted elect are those God eventually within time calls out of their spiritual depravity in spiritual light.  We all once were children of wrath.  We all were once spiritually dead.  But by virtue of the internal call of God, through His beloved powerfulness and efficacy, gave us spiritual life.  The Holy Spirit provides us with eyes to see.  The Holy Spirit provides us with ears to hear. 

Chapter 2:  True Peace:  Jesus Christ Lived For Me

The life of the Lord Jesus Christ was lived in complete sinlessness (1 Peter 1:19), because the burnt offerings of sheep and goats were suppose to be with blemish.  Only a Messiah who was perfectly sinless could atone for the sin of His people, because divine justice necessity the love of the Cross.  Christ had to be sinless in order to fulfill the demands of the righteous law of God.  Christ Himself argued for His own sinlessness as the Divine Redeemer (John 8:46), because He always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29).  The Son’s life is meant to replace our lives, because He was sinless but we are sinners (Romans 3).  The Son suffered as the Just for the unjust ((1 Peter 3:18), because it was the will of God the Father (John 8:38).  This also means that when the Son was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1) He did this in our place.  It means when we fall in sin like Peter (Luke 22:32) Jesus Christ will pray for us like He did with Peter so we would turn to Him again.  It shows that Christ sinlessly fulfilled the details of the exhaustive law of God (Exodus 10), because He was God the Son in His eternal self-existence, and was perfect to take upon flesh to fulfill His holy mission (John 1:14; Matthew 1:21).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Chapter 3:  True Peace:  Jesus Christ Was Forsaken For Me

            God the Son was forsaken by God the Father, because He bore the sin of His people.  All the sin of the elect were given and implied to the God-man, because divine justice had to be satisfied.  If divine justice was not satisfied in the Divine Christ then all sinners would go to hell: sin must be punished if God is a just, holy and righteous God.  If God is good He would have provided a redemptive provision to offer a substitute in behalf of His chosen people.  All throughout the Old Testament Scriptures God provides a foreshadow of Christ, because He has His people offer burnt offerings as a transference of sin to the sheep or goat (Leviticus 1:10).  Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of the burnt offerings in His ultimate sacrifice for sin to God the Father.  Christ was forsaken by the Father (Psalm 22:1); that is, the Father hid His face from the complete sin placed upon His Son (Habakkuk 1:13).  I mean the term forsaken as God hid His face, but I do not believe it means that He abandoned His Son at His greatest work of glory in behalf of His elect sheep.  However, during this redemptive drama the Father and the Son never were divided, but remain in perfect harmony in the highest work of obedience to God the Father.  Christ was made a curse for us so that we would not be made a curse by Him (Galatians 3:13).  If Christ was not made a curse by the Father, we would not be vessels of honor.  Therefore the Father looks at the perfect death of His Son and wholly accepts it as efficacious in behalf of His people, and the only acceptable way to satisfy divine justice was that the Messiah be both God and man.  Behold the Christ!

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Chapter 4:  True Peace:  Jesus Christ Shed His Blood For Me

            The Lord Jesus shed His blood in behalf of elect sinners, because His Cross-work had the intention to save those who went astray.  Christ shed His blood to provide forgiveness of sin, because His shedding of blood alone is enough for divine forgiveness in God’s sight (Hebrews 9:22).  If you have responded in a constant faith and repentance to this little pamphlet; God has surely made you spiritually alive (John 3; Titus 3:5).  That means the redemptive benefits of Christ are applied to your account by the work of the Holy Spirit.  That means His divine blood was given to you to wash you of your sins by the grace of consistent repentance (1 John 1:9).  The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7) and washed us by His blood (Revelation 1:5), because God the Father always accepted Him as His Beloved Son (Matthew 3:17).  Without the Beloved Son and His shed blood you will not be able to stand before God, because He requires the righteousness most holy, perfect and pure.  To this we now turn. 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Chapter 5:  True Peace:  Jesus Christ Gives Me His Complete Righteousness

God provides us with His righteousness of His Son, because we would not be able to stand before God without it.  The righteous live by faith (Romans 1:17), because the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the Law of Works in the righteousness of His Son (Romans 3:21-22).  "...But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works…"  (Romans 4:5-6).  Only the righteousness of Christ avails before God the Father:  "...and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith..."  (Philippians 3:9).  The spiritual riches of His imputed (or accounted) righteousness to me by grace of faith alone are essential for standing before God. 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Chapter 6:  True Peace:  Jesus Christ Forgives and Cleanses Me

The Father through His Son forgives and cleanses His people, because the Triune of God is the true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:16-20).  He is able to forgive and cleanse us from sin, because He provided a way for atonement through the Blessed One: the Lord Jesus Christ.  The reason why forgiveness and cleansing cannot come to the who worships the true Allah is because the God of the Bible provided redemption through the cross of His Son, and if hearers respond with confessions of sin through their daily lives, forgiveness and cleansing will truly occur (1 John 1:9).  All of the elect will respond in faith and repentance, because God has chosen them unto eternal life (Romans 8:30-35, Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU : A Sermon Study of John 2:5 and Immediate Obedience to Christ

“Lord, may we submit to Your Word.  Really believe Your Word.  Act upon Your Word.  And preach Your Word to people, and to do whatever you would tell us.  Amen.”

NASB:  "Whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:5). 

NIV:  "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:5). 

KJV:  “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” (John 2:5). 

NKJV: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”  (John 2:5). 

ESV:  "Do whatever he tells you."  (John 2:5).

These are the renderings of the verse in the Gospel of John.  This is the statement of the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary.  She does not point to herself but she points solely to her Son.  This excludes coming to her to get to Christ.  Christ is the only way to God the Father.  To use this story as a basis for Romish doctrine is contrary to the sacred text of Scripture.  She said to do whatever He tells you.  We are told in the New Testament that older woman ought to teach what is good.  Mary is an example of teaching what is good.  What she taught which is clearly seen in this little verse is profound, divine and explicit.  What did John the Baptist do in his ministry?  He pointed to Christ.  John 1:36 says, “and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"  (NASB).  Sound teachers of the pure sacred faith point to Christ as the only way to God.  John and Mary taught this and all of Scripture speaks to it.  What was the declaration by God the Father?  Was it to go to Mary, or was it directed to His Son?  Mark 9:7 says, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!"  John and Mary pointed to Christ as was the design of God the Father.  God the Father declared “LISTEN TO HIM!”  Have you listened to Christ as God commands?  Do you do what He commands, and have you believed the gospel, and walked in obedience?  How many of us have failed to listen to Christ?  How many of us have sinned in iHis

His face and linger in our sin? 

The Scripture says do whatever He tells you.  She says do.  This word refers to acting upon what the Lord Jesus Christ said.  We must act upon what He said.  Matthew 7:23-25 says, “Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”  A person is considered a wise man who built his house on the rock.  Storms came and it beat against the house, and it did not fall, because it has been built upon the rock.  Who is the Rock?  The Rock is none other then Jesus Christ our great Incarnate King and Master.  Mary says what is consistent with the teaching of Christ.  She was an example of believing what Christ taught.  Christ pointed people to Himself.  Christ did not say, “Go first to my mother.”  No, He says “Come to Me” and “Continue in My Word.”  How many people do not what He says?  How many people tell others to act on what Jesus says, and do not act on what He says?  They preach what they do not do.  We must be consistent in our theology and we must be consistent with how we live our lives.  Do you a life of consistent holiness and godliness?  Are you a person who is blameless in doing what He commands?  I do not mean sinless but like a person like Job.  Would God say of you, “This man or woman is blameless.  No one is like him or her in all the earth.”  Are you a Job who is a godly man and who was a devote family man?  Or are you a hypocrite of hypocrites?  Do you put aside His commands?  Can you say as Mary said do whatever He says and say it with a good and clear conscience? 

Act on the Word of Christ

Do what He has set forth

Accomplish His will

At whatever the cost

His ways of telling us to act are righteous, good and holy.  Paul says not to go beyond what is written.  Mary said to do whatever He tells you.  His Word is matchless and true.  His Word is an eternal treasure and it is alive and active.  When Mary says this it covers all of the divine Word.  We are to do what He says.  To reject and not to do what Christ says is rebellion against Him.  Sinners tend to listen to worldly things.  We love what man thinks regarding the things of God.  We think man speaks the truth about the things of God but we are wholly wrong.  Man goes to his priest for forgiveness; Eastern religious folk do meditation and yoga; Mormons do works of righteousness to attain to eternal life; Catholics do penance; Jehovah’s Witnesses go door-to-door; Homosexuals seek to justify for their sin that is unnatural--a life of lawlessness and tolerance; Literal Protestants reject the gospel; Freemasons do good works and serve Baal; all of which, if left till death, end in eternal death, the second death.  Mary said do whatever He tells you.  The Word of Christ is not merely the Words of Christ only.  Some people think that the words of Christ in red in some Bible are only inspired.  Some theologians do not like to use Bibles that have the words of Christ in red because they fear it gives the wrong impression.  We recognize that all of His Word is precious, but so also is the Words of His apostles, and the Old Testament prophets.  In the New Testament alone there are one thousand and fifty commands.  How do you match up with His commands?  Do you do whatever He commands?  The Word of Christ, that is, the Holy Word in both Old and New Testaments, are pure, holy, undefiled, precious, eternal, stored in the heavens; forever written in heaven; life-changing, life-enabling; life-convicting; life-alternating; life-penetrating, without which no man would be born from above; no sinner convicted; no change kindled with divine fire; no word of the Lord; no hope for the hopeless; no salvation for the spiritual poor; no secure foundation for the hope of heaven:  With the Word of the divine Lord Jesus Christ there is sure hope; true faith; lasting confidence; eternal treasures revealed, that await His people who live by faith.  The Holy Word of Christ says, “The just shall live by faith.”  Man changes this and perverts it.  Man says, “We must fulfill my desire of satisfying my lustful desires.”  He says, “No, its faith and works.”  He loves to change the truth and engage in foolish ways of the spiritually destructive children that reside in hell.  Do you think it is a small thing regarding this doctrine of faith alone?  Do you think if you abandon it you will go through the pearly gates?  All hope out side of the all-sufficient, divine, eternally exalted Christ, is foolishly hopeless; depraved speculations; hell-bound conjecture and spiritually harmful to its hearers.  Do you love to do God’s Word?  Are you a person who loves the words of the world: empty philosophy; secular humanism; worldly theologies and higher criticism?  Have you embraced the cow of rebellion?  Do you serve the god made with human hands?  Do you practice your lawless deeds of sin, and reject His truth?  What do you secretly think?  If Christ saw your mind, what would He say?  Would you say, “Surely this one does not do what I say”?  Would He say, “This one tries to get out of what I say”?  Or would He say, “Surely this one does whatever I say!”?  What are you a picture of?  Are you a picture of lawlessness, a devil or a saint who seeks to be holy?  If you have bad thoughts and corrupt thinking, use the Word to counter those thoughts, and to change your thoughts.  How you think determines how you live.  Are you thinking God-exalting and God-pleasing ways to seek to honor Him?  Again, are you a Christian that can say to the other because you yourself practice it, do whatever He tells you?  Have you failed, and do you linger in your self-piety?  Stand strong, and arise sinner, and fight the good fight for Jesus.  Do not give up.  Do whatever He says.  Go to His Word and then, my friend, seek to practice His Word, for, are you the man who built His house on the rock?  Do not build your house on sinking sand.  Sinking sand is embracing a substitute besides Christ but turn to the Rock Who is Christ the Eternal Logos.  Therefore do whatever He says! 

Now we shall turn to the word whatever.  This word encompasses anything Christ would say and anything Christ would command.  Has He commanded you and have you accomplished what He commanded?  Have you truly believed the Lord and have you truly repented?  Have you loved your neighbor and have you obeyed His Ten Commandments?  All of us have fallen short; we must fervently and faithfully repent. 

In Matthew 5:19 it says, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  (NIV).  Do what Christ says; practice and teach His commands, for they will be great in the kingdom of heaven!  Mark 7:9 said about the leaders, “And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”  How many have put aside God’s commands and observe their own man-made traditions?  John 14:15:  "If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  If you love Christ you will do what He says.  Again we are faced with doing with what Christ said.  John 14:21 says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."  Christ’s people will be loved by the Father and by the Son, and Christ will show Himself to them.  The love of the Father and the Son cannot be divided or parted.  It is perfect love.  John 15:10 says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”  John 15:12-15 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.  "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."  You are My friends if you do what I command you.  "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

Whatever is Thy command, Oh Lord

Direct me to Thy ways

And cause me to do whatever Your Word is

So I may remain in Thy love

Let me do whatever Your command is

Let me continue in Your Word and show I love You

Have you turned to the right, or to the left?  Should you not turn to Christ, and reach forward unto Him?  What is the testimony of God the Father about His Son?  Go to God the Father and see the wonders He says about His only Beloved Son.  The Father declares of His Son something that is unlike sinners or sinful leaders of men.  He declares that His Beloved Son is wholly and altogether pleasing to Him.  Therefore His Son must be believed, trusted, embraced and, then, poor sinner, do not just hear His Word, but act by faith, and do His precious ways for it is the way of life.  Turn, then, to God the Father, the only Holy Father that is, that was, and that ever shall be.  Jesus said “Keep through Thine own Name.”  God the Father is the only person in existence that should be called Holy Father.  If God the Father is Holy, how much more should you listen to what He says, then depraved men?  Do you turn to those who claim to be “Fathers” in Rome, or do you turn to the only Holy Father?  Paul was the spiritual father of Timothy but he is not a priest in the Roman sense.  Paul did not hear the confession of Timothy; Paul did not absolve sin; no, Paul was a man of faith but not the faith of Rome but of the Christian faith.  All earthly fathers are imperfect, but God the Father is perfect.  Earthly fathers will err and sin but the Father in heaven is a sinless and true God the Father.  Turn, then, to Him to understand what you should do concerning His Son.  God the Father bears testimony to His precious altogether perfect Son in Matt. 17:5. 

Turn now to the word He.  Turn to Him and act upon what He has said. 

Matthew 17:5 speaks of what God the Father declared, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"  God the Father says He is wholly pleased with His Son.  He is all-pleased with Him.  Christ is altogether trustworthy.  Man-made Jesus’ end in dust—in man’s depraved imaginations Jesus is the brother of Lucifer (Mormonism); a highly exalted angel (Jehovah’s Witnesses); insufficient to pay for the sins of His people (Romanism).  God the Father says Listen to Him.  He points to His only, true Son.  Jesus is not the brother of Lucifer; He is one of kind; He is the agent of creation.  Jesus is not a highly exalted angel; He is God Incarnate.  Jesus is all-sufficient; you do not need purgatory with this Jesus.  The Father says listen to Him for He speaks of the gospel for He is the Author of it, and He is the only Way to the streets of gold.  Do you listen to the eternal Son of God, and do you love to listen to Him as commanded by the Father?  Again we see in Luke 9:35 says of what God the Father said:  "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!"  Jesus is the Chosen One not Mary.  Therefore hearken to Him and heed His Words.  Mary says what God the Father has declared.  She teaches what are in conformity to the sacred pages of Scripture.  You do not hear Mary saying, “You must go through me to get to my Son.  I am the dispenser of all graces.”  No, Mary says, do whatever He says.  What does Christ say?  He commands people at every time and everywhere to repent and believe on Him for eternal life.  Jesus says of Himself that He alone is the Way to the Father.  Jesus says “I am the sole Mediator between God and men and there are no other mediators.”  The Word does not support other mediators and any other Redeemer in any other sense.  Jesus says love one another.  He says to love God with all our minds, strength and heart.  He points people to Himself and to none other.  Someone in the time of Jesus believed that it was proper to exalt Mary by calling her blessed, but Christ said blessed are they that hear the Word and keep it.  Have you done what He has said?  Do you hear or comprehend the Word, and do you keep His Word?  If you do whatever He says, you will comprehend the Word and keep the Word.  He commands us to understand for we see in Mark 7:14 speaks of Christ’s testimony of listening to Him:  “After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand…”  Jesus tells the crowd to listen to Him.  He speaks to all of the people, and He commands their understanding.  Jesus knows He is the one to listen to.  He points people not to His mother to get to Him but to Himself for He is the Incarnate Way, and He is wholly matchless.  If Jesus has commanded you to listen to Him, why do you not heed His command?  Who is the One who hears the Word perfectly, and who is the One who keeps the Word perfectly?  It is Christ alone; we cannot turn to Mary and say this of her.  She prayed and declared she needed a Savior.  Flee not to a sinner in need of a Savior but flee to the Perfect One who is nothing less then the Incarnate King.  If you flee to Mary in prayer, your prayers will be wholly displeasing to God.  He despises prayer to saints and Jesus Himself hates prayers to His prayer.  People say, “Blessed are those who pray to your mother and say it.”  Jesus says, “Rather, blessed are those who pray to Me, my Father and Spirit and do that alone.”  When the Father commands His people to listen to His Son, and when Jesus commands people to hearken to Him and hear, He is not saying, “I am merely the Way to the Father but to get to Me you must go through my Mother.”  No, it means, rather, go directly to Christ to get to the Father.  Heed the words of none other as you would Christ the Eternal King. 

In Mark 12:37 speaks of a “…large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.”  The crowd enjoyed listening to Him.  His people enjoy listening to Him.  Those called according to His purpose, and the elect, love to hear Him.  His people will not hear other Ways, but the Matchless Son of God.  He was a great preacher, and this preacher was the only Way.  Mary is not the way to Him; Jesus is the Way to the Father.  We may approach Christ without going through Mary.  We can go directly to Him.  This Mary of Rome and this Jesus of Rome is not the Mary and Jesus neither of Scripture nor of biblical Christianity.  Do you enjoy listening to the Father’s only Beloved Son?  Have you hearkened to the Words of Christ?  If you do not enjoy listening to the Word of Christ, examine yourself, and do not be deceived by the deceitfulness of sin.  Hearken toward repentance and bearing fruits of repentance in your life.  How many crowds merely hear the Words of Christ and say, “What a nice teaching” but do not manifest it in their lives.  How many people call Him rich; and do not ask Him to be more like Him.  How many people call Him a prophet, but do not need His words about His own testimony of Himself (that He is God Incarnate).  How many people call Him genuine and true, but do not obey His teachings.  How many people call Him a great teacher and yet do not do what He says.  Mary says do whatever He says!  Have you listened to Him to do whatever He says?  Hear and do.  Listen and act.  Comprehend and practice.  Submit and surrender to Him.  Do as He says and walk the road toward heaven.  Do what He says and do not turn to the right or to the left.  Do what He says and live the Word.  What a wonder it is when a true servant-friend of Christ hears the Word, enjoys the Word, is touched by the Word, and does what the Word says.  Do not be like Herod who liked to listen to John the Baptist but did not heed what He said.  What a great judgment awaited Herod who liked the words of John, and did not act on it.  God’s great wrath is now actively on Herod in hell.  What Herod heard, he is responsible for but he rejected the teaching of John.  Enemies of Christ in John 10:20 were His enemies who did not say “we must listen to Him to live” but questioned why they should listen to Him at all:  “Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?"  Do you question why you should listen to Him?  Do you say “He speaks kind words” but secretly say, “Why listen to Him?”  Jesus warned His followers of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod.  But the Word and Teaching of Christ is pure and cannot be compared to Christ’s Word.  In Luke 19:48 it says, “Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” (NIV).  In order for you to do whatever He says, do you hang on His every Word?  Have you elevated a teacher to this level of spiritual credibility?  Repent!  But I am not saying that we should not trust reliable teachers of the Word.  We should hear them and search the Scriptures to see if those things are so like was done to Paul.  If the Bereans tested Paul, how much more should we test teachers of our day?  Test them and turn to the Word.  After turning to the Word, if true, then believe.  Do you hang on every Word of Christ?  Where have you fallen short, and where do you need grace to restrain you from sin, and where do you need grace to act on His commands?  Hang, then, on His every Word.  Trust His Word; depend on His Word; put your confidence on His Word; have you mind set upon it; be desperately abandoned to His Word, wholly set apart!

Luke 16:14 says of His enemies that when they listened to Him it did not end in belief but in scoffing, “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.”

John 10:20 speaks of His enemies who did not say “we must listen to Him” but questioned why they should listen to Him at all:  “Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?"

Luke 2:46 speaks of Christ listening to teachers and learning from them.  What a picture this is, and it shows us what we ought to do:  listen to God’s teachers that He has appointed in our lives.  “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.”  Do you listen to God’s appointed teachers in your life?  Are you in a biblical, Christ-centered church that exalts Christ and preachers the gospel?  Have you become distracted when you listen to teachers that God has put in your life?  Do you ask your teachers sincere questions to gain knowledge?  Do you value your learning?  The people listened to Christ as Christ listened to the teachers in the temple.  He is an example of how to learn, and He is the example of learning from Him.  We learn abundantly from Christ, and we must submit to Him, and love what comes out of His mouth that is in His Word.  Luke 5:1 speaks of a crowd listening to Christ.  How many crowds do not hear Him yet listen?  “Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret…”  When Jesus speaks it is the Word of God.  The Word of God is something that we must heed to.  We must heed to the Word of God.  Why have you not heeded Christ, and why have you not done what He said?  He spoke the Word to you and you have hardened your hearts.  Hearken to the gospel command and embrace His Word; hid in your heart and mediate on it, and practice it forthwith in your life!  As went to the teachers, now, people go to Him.  In Luke 21:38 says, “And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.”

Luke 15:1 speaks of sinners listening to Him: “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.”  Are you coming near Christ and are you listening to Him?  There is a song that says, “Drawer me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the precious bleeding side…”  Are you near to God?  Do you go to Him on a regular basis and seek to get away from sin?  Doesn’t sin become less when you draw nigh unto God?  Luke 16: 31:  "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"  Jesus said if they believed Me they would believe the Prophets but the fact was, they rejected the Prophets and rejected the words of Christ.  Peter in Acts 2:22 speaks of listening to His words, he said “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”  Listen to what?  Its Peter’s message of Christ and the gospel.  It’s the message of the cross which takes away the sin of His people.  It was propitiated and expiated.  Listening to the Word of Peter is hearing the Word of Christ. 

Continue in the gospel, my friends in Christ, and remain in His love.  Do whatever He tells you.  Turn now to the words tells you.  Christ tells all-the- world to repent and believe.  He tells you what to believe and how to live.  Hearken then to His matchless message of truth and grace. Why do so many hearken to the words of false teachers, and not unto Christ?

“Lord, may we do what Mary has said; that is, to do whatever He tells you.  Let us not do what the Mary of this world has said which is none other then Satan.  May we turn to Christ and go to Christ.  There is no Mediator so great and so mighty as Jesus Christ.  Amen.”

Being Built Up In Christ

 

Colossians 2 speaks of being built up in Christ,

1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.  (NKJV).

We see that manifestation of Paul’s mind.  It is indeed lovely, caring, brotherly love, and concern for the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul himself had never seen the Colossian church, but his heart was with them.  Henry wrote, “Paul's care of the church was such as amounted to a conflict. He was in a sort of agony, and had a constant fear respecting what would become of them. Herein he was a follower of his Master, who was in an agony for us, and was heard in that he feared. (2.) We may keep up a communion by faith, hope, and holy love, even with those churches and fellow-Christians of whom we have no personal knowledge, and with whom we have no conversation. We can think, and pray, and be concerned for one another, at the greatest distance; and those we never saw in the flesh we may hope to meet in heaven.”  The people at this church were blessed of God, and surely the people of Christ’s invisible church.  We see a deep love by Paul for them, and for the truth of God’s revelation.  We too are God’s true people if we have truly trusted Christ the Lord and Redeemer.  Are we not His people plucked from the pit of hell, and set on solid ground?  Paul saw Christ in the flesh, and he was surely an apostle of God in proclaiming the gospel of God.  Paul proclaimed it in the midst of great persecution, conflict and tribulation.  Paul was a committed man in preaching the true Gospel of God.  The divine Word says in 1 Peter 1:8, “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory…”  (NKJV). 

When Paul proclaimed God’s message of the true gospel of the imputed righteousness of Christ, he proclaimed it against much opposition.  When we proclaim the gospel of the imputed righteousness of Christ alone we will encounter conflict.  We may even find conflict within the church.  But it was the thought that God is completely in control of events in time and space.  Even when people reject the gospel in the midst of great conflict we know in truth that God has a people He will save unto Himself in truth and righteousness.  Paul labored for the people, and he was greatly thankful and encouraged that the Paul labored for the Lord when he was absent.  Paul wants to encourage his brothers and sisters in Christ.  When we encourage each other in Christ it builds us up in the Lord and produces growth in Christ for God’s glory.  Paul did not personally found this church at Colosse.  We must think of others to build them up in the Lord, and bless them as they serve the Lord.  God’s people are knit together in love by the Trinity of love.  John was a beloved fellow of the Lord who was deeply loved.  John had a special relationship with Christ unlike the other disciples or apostles.  This relationship is awesome and wonderful.  So, too, we can look at Jonathan and David.  Both of their hearts were knit together in true love.  They had a brotherly relationship unlike what is commonly known.  It was a unique relationship grounded in Christian love, in Christlikeness, in love that is unequaled.  We ought to be knit together in love toward one another.  It is an enjoyable thing to see and experience being knit together in love among brothers and sisters in Christ.  Are we knit together in love?  Are you like Jonathan and David who had a love that transcends the common experience of love among believers?  We are to love as Christ loved His people in truth, in sincerity, in patience, in righteousness, in doing whatever we can to show our love in godly ways.  Daniel was also a man who was greatly beloved of the Lord in Christ. 

Let us also explore the encouragement of Paul.  Paul encourages the brothers and sisters in Christ at this church at Colosse.  Do we offer an encouraging word to friends in Christ at other churches we do not know?  Do we offer encouraging words to people at church?  When people are encouraged they are built up in the Lord Jesus.  Elders and deacons out of all of us need the most encouragement in the Lord.  Their positions of ministry are very discouraging, but we can offer a word of encouragement it is much better for them, and we do something pleasing in God’s sight.  May we do this!  We see in the Bible that encouragement is a biblical and proper thing to do:

Deuteronomy 1:38, “But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.”  (NIV).  Deuteronomy 3:28, “But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’  Acts 11:23, “When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.”  Acts 15: 30 So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. 31 When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. 32 Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.  1 Thessalonians 3:2, “and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith…”  1 Thessalonians 3:6, “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we also to see you…”  (NKJV).

Within the Godhead of the Trinity there is a love unspeakable, unimaginable, unbelievable.  Each member surely loves His own, but have you thought of the love the members have for each other?  Yes, indeed, the Members of the Godhead are knit together love for each other in truth and righteousness.  The Father’s love for the Son and the Father and Son’s love for the Spirit are perfect, undefiled, pure, holy.  We see a love that surpasses understanding, and they are devoted in truth.  But we see the love of the Father toward God’s people who are in Christ.  The Father loves God’s people through God the Son the Incarnate Lamb.  God the Father loves His people as He loves God the Son, because it in and through Christ that the Righteous Father loves His own.  Within this love of God’s people from the Father, we find no division, no abandonment, no forsakenness in terms of God’s people.  We remain firmly in God’s love through Christ the Redeemer, and nothing in all creation can take us out of the Father’s grip. 

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

      “ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
       We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (NKJV).

We remain firmly settled in the Triune love of God.  There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from His love.  Romanists believe that mortal sin breaks the grace of justification, and you could die in mortal sin, and end up in hell.  But even sin cannot take us out of God’s Almighty hand because we are firmly planted in Christ Jesus.  Once we are His (and the Lord knows those who are His) we cannot be taken out of His loving hand.  Sin does hurt us in our relationship with God.  It can make our prayers go unanswered, and cause us to be chastened by God.  Yet, sin cannot break the true grace of justification.  It does not mean we should abuse grace, and sin more and more, but it does mean we ought to humble ourselves under God’s Almighty hand, and He will exalt His people in truth and righteousness.  We must faithfully repent of the sins we have committed; we must labor for the Lord in whatever we do; we must fear God, and produce fruits of righteousness unto the praise of His glorious grace.  We cannot remain in sin, and forsake repentance; we must be faithful to God in Christ.  We must remain in self-control, and we must be people of love to the world, to our enemies, to the church.  Let us remember the love of Christ.  Did He not die for His people?  Did He not freely go to the Cross at Calvary?  He did spare His own life but endured the Cross that was set before Him by His Father.  The Cross was an ordained act of love by God.  It was God who put His Son to death through His appointed means.  We cannot miss the love of the Cross, and how He loved us while we were still sinners.  The full payment for sin was seen at the Cross, and Christ provided for His people the all-sufficient merit that we need.  We see today that people think good works save people, but how can this be if every faculty of man is tainted with serious and rebellious sin?  No, my friends, it was Christ and Christ alone that provides that all-sufficient merit that God’s people need to stand before the Father of heaven and earth.  The Father of love ordained the Cross to be as it was, not to condemn His people, but to free them from the sin that emerged in the Garden of Eden.  We cannot stand before God without the loving robes of Christ’s righteousness.  It is impossible to stand before the God-man without His righteous robes of purity in love, in holiness, in purity, in righteousness.  The act of giving God’s people Christ’s garments is an act of true love for His elect only.  The Cross never failed once to save God’s people, nor does the intercession of Christ fail.  The Cross and the intercession of Christ for His beloved few is and was and remains to be, an eternal act of indescribable love, compassion, pity.

Let us consider the love of God for His beloved people.  Psalm 25:6, “Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, for they are from of old.”  Psalm 40:11, “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.”  Psalm 51:1, “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.”  Psalm 69:16, “Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.”  Psalm 119:77, “Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight.”  John 15:12-13, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  1 Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!” (NKJV).

Let us consider the love who ought to have toward one another in Christ our Lord.  Romans 12:9-10, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.  Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another…”   Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  Romans 14:15, “Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.”  1 Corinthians 13:3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”  1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up...”  1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.  1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 14:1, “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”  1 Corinthians 16:14, “Let all that you do be done with love.”  (NKJV).

We see that the knowledge and wisdom of the love of Christ is surely beyond anything we can imagine in our human minds.  Let us not forget that we are depraved, and we have sin that affects our minds.  Let us not seek knowledge and wisdom elsewhere, for it in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are.  The wisdom of the wise is foolishness in the sight of God, but the wisdom of God is far better, and far greater then the futile wisdom of the world.  We understand that Solomon was a man of wisdom, and some believe he was the wisest man who ever lived.  But when we come to Christ we clearly see that He was the One who gave Solomon his wisdom, and surely we can see that Christ is not merely high human wisdom, but rather, He is Incarnate Wisdom.  We see that the wisdom of Christ is not tainted with human sin as our minds are tainted with serious sin before God.  But Christ had the purest mind that ever was, and His wisdom is the greatest of all, for in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.  Do we dare look to another save Christ Jesus?  Do we dare think we are wiser then He?  What foolishness!  See how sin exalts itself over the plain testimony of divine Scripture?  See how sin creeps and lurks to find glory for itself?  We need to be people who seek knowledge and wisdom of the things of God.  We find the true mind of God in divine Scripture.  We find the breathed out words of God in holy Writ.  But the Quran and the Hindu texts do not have the same divine words of God.  They fail at every level to change the hearts and minds of men.  The holy Bible is the only holy book on earth.  In it we find Christ speaking to us—do we listen to His divine wisdom and knowledge? 

We see that Paul preached the message of the Gospel, and we see that the only way men can truly believe the gospel is by the Spirit of God and the Word of God.  This is the wisdom and knowledge of God.  But man tries to find ways of clever arguments to believe, and programs but they fail to realize that it is only by the Spirit of truth and the Word of truth that the sons and daughters of men will heed the message of the Gospel of grace and peace.  Without the divine Wisdom of God in Christ Jesus there would be no hope of redemption, but now the hope of glory, the hope of heaven, the hope of true bliss.  I remember the time when I saw that all of my past was a life of misery.   I only understand this because of the spiritual awakening I received by God the Spirit.  I also listened to the Word of God until it came out of my mouth, ears and eyes.  All mankind is under sin, and guilty before.  All mankind is a slave of sin, and in spiritual bondage.  Shall we go back to Egypt?  Shall we live lives of foolish sin?  Why would any want to go back to a life of utter misery, terror before God in His wrath, and constant rebellion in sin?  We could offer God money to take us in.  We could not offer God some merit of our own.  We could not offer God works of grace that forms the ground of our justification.  We could not offer God our civil righteousness or alleged goodness.  None of these, my friends, matches up with the sinless purity of Christ robes of righteousness.  None of these, my friends, could stand before God’s ways of utter perfection.  We simply fail at every level to provide some kind of worthiness to God.  The only worthiness that is acceptable before God is in and through Christ Jesus.  It is not in anything or anyone else, save Christ Jesus the Redeemer and Kind and Lion of Judah. 

Henry wrote, “The more intimate communion we have with our fellow-christians the more the soul prospers: Being knit together in love. Holy love knits the hearts of Christians one to another; and faith and love both contribute to our comfort. The stronger our faith is, and the warmer our love, the greater will our comfort be. Having occasion to mention Christ (v. 2), according to his usual way, he makes this remark to his honour (v. 3): In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He had said (ch. i. 19) that all fulness dwells in him: here he mentions particularly the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is a fulness of wisdom in him, as he has perfectly revealed the will of God to mankind. Observe, The treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ. Those who would be wise and knowing must make application to Christ. We must spend upon the stock which is laid up for us in him, and draw from the treasures which are hidden in him. He is the wisdom of God, and is of God made unto us wisdom, &c., 1 Cor. i. 24, 30.”

Let us examine attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding.  The Christian faith is understood by those who have listened carefully to the Bible and theology.   But it is not only understood intellectually but also with the actions of our daily lives.  When we act on deeds of love, we experience a sense of great confidence.  We then can see it operate in our lives and in the lives of other Christians.  We then, by God’s grace, can build confidence.  People may come and deny the faith, and use arguments to argue me out of the kingdom, but it says no affect on His people because we have seen the power of God in Christ in our lives.  God has been at work; no argument can argue me out of that. 

We see that the divine wisdom of God is hidden from the wise and prudent.  We see that the gospel is not offered to them, but to the elect only in a sense.  We see that the babes are the ones whom He came to save, and seeks out and saves.  But the wise and prudent do not have the gospel revealed to them because this was well-pleasing in the sight of God the Father.  God chooses to save the nobodies, the people who are nothing, the destitute.  He saves these people because the only attraction God sees is their nothingness.  Christ saves His own, and He will never cast out those who come to Him.  1 Corinthians 1:21, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”   1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…”  1 Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness…”  Colossians 1:9, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding…”  James 3:17, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”  Revelation 5:12, “saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”  (NKJV).

Let us examine the phrase both of the Father and of Christ.  The Father is God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity.  He is whom Christ is submissive.  Christ is divinely subordinate to God the Father as God the Son, but being subordinate does not mean inferior.  We profess as Christians that the Father and the Son are equally divine, but they have different roles within the Godhead.  The Father and the Son agree in what must be done in terms of redemption.  The Father sends the Son into the world to save His people from their sins, and just punishment.  This is the wisdom of God in the gospel presentation in the perfect life and atoning death of Christ.  In the Father and the Son are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.  Let us remember the contrast:  1 Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.”  Paul did not engage in persuasive words but in the words of God.  Let us remember that the Word of God changes the heart of man by the Spirit of God.  We must preach the gospel of Christ by the Word of God.  It is not by clever speech but by the Word of God.  We learn that it is in the gospel not even in baptized that we are saved, but solely in the gospel of Christ. 

For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.  We ought to live as if our life is on display in the public eye, and we ought to live, more importantly, that God Himself is watching us.  Are you living a life in good order and steadfastness of your faith in Christ? 

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him… If you have Christ, you ought to live like it.  If you have Christ, you ought to walk in Him.  People profess Christ but they lack true fruit.  If you have Christ you ought to walk in Him. 

…rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.  Are you rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith?  Haven’t you been taught this, and do you abound in it with thanksgiving? 

Father, walk worthy of the gospel, and live in light of it, and build each other up in the Christ of Scripture.  Amen.